Living with depression can be a daily struggle, as it can surface at the most inconvenient times. For this reason, I have often found it is a perfect excuse to avoid any situation which might trigger it.
Last month saw Rowan, Rupert, Iliane and Jenny frantically buying warm clothes and snow shoes before embarking on a journey to Yellowstone National Park to track wolves for Rowans on-line television show ‘Endagerous.’
Pokemon Go is a new app that has created lots of interest from young people to old all around the world! It has also captured the attention of one of the kids that attends playdates at Horse Boy Headquarters in Elgin, Texas which provided us with the perfect opportunity to work with him on social skills and academics in a way that would be intrinsically motivating.
We are very happy to announce that Gitti Berkhoff from Ahlen Germany succesfully completed her certification for Basic Horse Boy Method Practioner.
Research shows that if a person feels under too much pressure this can cause stress and the production of the hormone cortisol.
Our first ever Horse Boy Method workshop in Norway took place on 1 and 2 September 2018 in Fåvang. The workshop was hosted by our Horse Boy practitioner Emma Helleman at her magical care farm Mattisborgen IPT Gård. She did an amazing job at preparing her farm and horses, Alex and Tindra, for the 6 participants in the workshop.
In the summer of 2017 my son, Max and I (a single, self employed mom) received a grant from the Horse Boy Foundation to go on a trip to the UK and visit two centres for a Horse Boy camp: New Leaf Triangle and Equine Learning CIC. A truly great opportunity for Max as well as for me as a Horse Boy Method and Movement Method trainee trainer and an autism parent.
So we know that nature and freedom of movement are key when working with neurological difference as most of these excellent people can be shut down by man made industrial sensory triggers and are kinetic learners.We also need a 'yes' environment to encourage communication.
Easier said than done i know. Most of us live pretty isolated family lives - you and your spouse (if you have one), the kids, your home - that's it.
Which is fine until a crisis hits.
Then you'd better have some people around you.
It doesn't matter whether you use horses. It doesn't matter whether you use ABA, Horse Boy Methods, PECS, Sunrise, Play Therapy, Floortime, or a cocktail of all of them if you don't get the environment right - forget it.
Why?
Here is an example of a Horse Boy Method activity prepared for Scub.
Scub beloved Horse Betsy passed away two years ago. Since then he hasn’t really ridden other horses and we wanted to plan a fun way to reintroduce new horses to Scub.
Week 2:By the second week Scub said “ Let’s go get Ma!”
He walked over to her field, walked her over to the tack room and took her riding arena.
John Medina, a world class molecular biologist writes in his bestselling book ‘Brain Rules’ that if we look back at our evolutionary history we will see that the human brain evolved to (1) solve problems (2) related to survival (3) in an unstable outdoor environment, and (4) to do so in nearly constant motion.
This little autistic boy was a runner. Everywhere he went, he would run, in stores, museum, nature parks,...
Gui was a 8 years old boy.
This day, he was having a meltdown, he was crying and screaming; he was trying very hard to calm himself down but nothing would work. He would say “I just don’t know how”, he was looking for something that would make him happy again but he couldn’t find his way out of it, he would say “I’m crying like a baby and I don’t like it”.
Johnathan was a five year old boy.
He loved “Woody”, the character from the famous kids’ movie “Toy Story”. He was always wearing the same boots as Woody, and would imitate Woody’s poses.
While riding on the horse he would pretend to be Woody riding his horse “Bullseye”.
New Trails Learning Systems
Ending the notion that suffering is necessary for learning
New Trails Learning Systems
Ending the notion that suffering is necessary for learning